Clean up old Windows updates

By Ed Bott

When your hard disk starts to feel overstuffed, your first option is to tidy up your personal data folders, deleting files you no longer need and archiving others to external storage devices or to the cloud. (Don't forget the Downloads folder, and be sure to empty the Recycle Bin after your housekeeping is complete.)

But that's only the first step in claiming back free disk space. Some of the biggest disk hogs are files that Windows keeps on hand even after a successful update. Old Windows Update files can use multiple gigabytes of space, and a semi-annual feature update can keep tens of gigabytes of old Windows files on hand for weeks to enable recovery features.

You can't recover this disk space using File Explorer. Instead, if you're confident you don't need those old files, you need to use one of two built-in system tools. Run Disk Cleanup Manager (Cleanmgr.exe) as an administrator. Select the Windows Update Cleanup and Previous Windows Installation(s) categories and click OK to free their space. In Windows 10, open Settings > System > Storage, expand the categories under your system (C:) drive and then click Temporary Files. Select either of those same two categories and then click Remove Files to reclaim their space.

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